A friend of mine recently took up a new job and in turn had to change cities and apartments. She's a firm believer of the theory that an apartment needs to have a ‘homely' feel to it and hence went about the entire home decorating process.
I've been living on my own for 10 years now and know that it's quite a challenge to build a nice, cozy apartment. I've been lucky with job stability and transfers and haven't been forced into moving. But I assure you that relocating and setting up a nice apartment is quite a challenge mentally.
I'm a person who loves to plan things out. Spontaneity is not a word I'd associate myself with too often. So when I was planning out my apartment, I made a list of all the things I'll need. Furniture was close to the top of my list.
I wish finding good furniture was as easy as walking into a supermarket and picking up groceries. But I learned the hard way that it's not. I struggled through my deals and on more than one occasion came off worse, from a financial and product quality perspective. That's when I realised that you need to keep a few important pointers in mind and plan based on those.
1. For starters, fix your budget. Because you don't want to be in a scenario where you expect too much and have too less.
2. Select your material. Decide on what type of wood and ensure that the variety fits into your budget (I assure you that good wood isn't a cheap proposition!).
3. Ensure that you strike the balance between utility and orientation. You don't just want something that looks good (unless you've got a lot of money to spend!). Hence it's important that it fits well and will be used by you.
4. Keep your choices in sync with other apartment choices. For instance, your furniture needs to match your apartment paint colour or vice versa. You don't want to be stuck with a weird concoction that leaves you queasy rather than at home.
5. Plan your space. Ensure that your apartment isn't too cluttered with furniture. It would be preferable to pick furniture that serves more than one purpose. A sofa-bed for instance can come in handy when you're just spending time in your living room and even when you want to crash at night.
6. Plan your expenses rather than investing in too much at once. Stores even offer easy monthly installment options on furniture these days.
7. While this isn't a prerequisite, get yourself interested. Enjoy the buying process. It makes things easier and will contribute to better choices.
Buying furniture might not be the adrenaline pumping adventure you were looking forward to, but you can at least make the process smooth and hassle free by making better choices.
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